Spiral Knights - Darkfang Menders

Darkfang Menders

7 replies [Last post]

Sun, 07/10/2011 - 21:53

Draycos

Balance these stupid things.

They're annoying, but not overpowered, some might say.

I THINK OTHERWISE.

They shield instantly on occasion when low on health. They attack you instantly and with NO warning (even if it's weak... what the hell, guys?! WHY?!). They heal the same amount of health no matter what the party's size is-it's only an issue with Darkfangs because of their AoE heal in particular, it's broken; enemies NEAR it get healed, they don't have to be on it. It heals way too much and way too quickly compared to their standard heal.

There's just one thing that's particularly cheap. The one thing that ticks me off and makes this game a lot less fun to play when I happen to fight them in arenas or Danger Rooms.

They can heal themselves.

Do silkwings do? No. Nor do they heal nearly as much as Menders. They heal in an area, but Darkfangs have an area heal. Two actually. WHAT?

When you're alone in a run, they heal almost too much damage, too much that you can't deal more than they heal. Then they can revive other Menders. And then they just keep reviving eachother.

Either make it so their healing scales based on party size, or remove their self healing. If they couldn't heal themselves, or revive other Menders, they'd be considerably less annoying.

Mon, 07/11/2011 - 00:17

Vysorn

Legacy Username

is there a like botton

is there a like botton somewhere ? cause I like this post. Very accurate.

Mon, 07/11/2011 - 11:19

Pelikins

Legacy Username

I like the menders. They make

I like the menders. They make things almost difficult.

About 90% of the rooms can be solved using 1 of 2 tactics.

1) Pull out a gun and shoot them from a vantage point that the enemy can't get to.

2) Charge your sword, run in, hit a few enemies, run out (repeat until dead)

The menders make you actually run in and risk some of your hp to kill them because they do heal enough (and self heal) to survive ranged harass and charged attack spam.

This is what you can do about them though.

1) Utilize shield push, and CC status effects. CC the damage dealing mobs and focus the mender until you kill it while the damaging mobs are tied up.

2) Utilize those green potions that you otherwise would ignore unless you are on a Jelly King run. Hit them in the face with the green stuff and then harass them down. Pull out your gun and go to town and they'll go down quick.

Note: If you get a hold of a Sentenza you'll never complain about menders again.

Mon, 07/11/2011 - 12:45

No-Fun-Allowed

Menders are fine.

I've killed plenty of Darkfang Menders.

And I agree with Pelikins. Once you get your hands on a Faust or Sentezna, you'll quit whining and start killing.

Tue, 07/12/2011 - 18:46

Draycos

They aren't much of a problem

They aren't much of a problem if handled in the right manner or when poisoned/cursed, but, Faust is a tad too slow to hit dodging menders and too slow to get away quickly from the other mobs. Sentenza... well, when a mender is standing in its AoE heal, it just doesn't deal enough damage.

I admit when I made this I was ticked off because of a shoddy danger room run, but my point still stands; attacks you can't see coming, however weak, should NOT be in the game, or at least not for healers of all things. They can just turn around and stop running whenever they want randomly and then shoot an Ember Bolt at you or hit you and there's NOTHING you can do but take the hit, you have no time to react at all. I don't care if it only deals two bars of health when you have normal defense gear; when the game gives you a second chance and leaves you at one bar when an enemy should have overkilled you, it's like you guys programmed menders deliberately to screw players out of that no-revive win.

Tue, 07/12/2011 - 23:52

direx

Legacy Username

The only change I think the

The only change I think the menders need is a cooldown on the heal they can put down on the ground. There's nothing more disheartening than being in a tier 3 arena final wave and have the two menders that spawn put down 2 healing circles each so that it's incredibly difficult to get a monster off of them to kill them.

Fri, 07/15/2011 - 05:46

Pelikins

Legacy Username

The aoe heal really shouldn't

The aoe heal really shouldn't be a problem. And I mean for anyone...ever...this is especially true in arenas/danger rooms where the programmers where kind enough to give a space to fight the size of the Lusitania.

You can walk into the menders AoE without penalty and push the enemy you're trying to kill out of it by shielding in melee range.

Learn how to shield push or use poison. This is elementary stuff! Do yourself a favor and go into a tier 1 dungeon and learn how to manipulate enemy mobs. Once you realize how versatile shield throwing and knock-backs are you'll find this game is very easy.

PRO-TIP: Having trouble getting zerged by large groups of mobs (like in the Jelly King fight)? Instead of holding shield, pulse your shield and walk in the direction of your escape (tap the shield button slowly). Watch your enemies get thrown out of your way so they can't hit you. /win

There are also many sword charges with large knock-backs that work just as well. Leviathan Blade, and Divine Avenger are two of the most powerful. You can walk an enemy across the dungeon with a Divine Avenger and you can get in and push EVERYONE out of the AoE with the Leviathan Blade.

Compound this with the effects of a freezing status such as a Shivermist and you can put the healers all in one room and everyone else in another while you and your party /derp in a third.

There is really only one mechanic that tier 3 menders do that I dislike, and that is not drop their loot until you kill the last one...

Fri, 07/15/2011 - 10:39

Eeks

Mender attack w/ no

Mender attack w/ no warning

This is pretty cheap. I'm surprised that most players simply shrug it off just because it does only 1-3 bars of damage. If any other mob did this attack everyone would be QQing and making 100 threads about how cheap it is. A cheap attack is a cheap attack and I agree that it should be adjusted.

Mender reviving other menders

This is probably my biggest gripe with menders. I've had "perfect" scenarios where I sniped out a mender with curse pot, faust, etc. and the other mender created a revive loop that cycled at least 5 times. Seriously? I understand players want more of a challenge but there is a threshold at which things just become straight up BS.

Area Heal

I guess I know why mobs were annoyed when players put down 3 shivermists covering an entire room. Have you seen 3 area heals? It is nearly impossible to out DPS even a single heal ring. There are only a handful of weapons in the game that can outdps these things which is a bit silly especially if a gremlin drops one right under a gun puppy (which they are known to do a lot of).

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With that said, I don't find menders to be particularly difficult at all. I don't remember the last time 2-3 made me wipe because of reviving each other etc. but the fact is they are extremely annoying for no reason other than to be annoying.

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Darkfang Menders